Bug 31194

Summary:	freebsd.org mailing lists - configuration problem?
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Szilveszter Adam <sziszi>
Component:	Advocacy	Assignee:	freebsd-advocacy (Nobody) <advocacy>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Szilveszter Adam 2001-10-10 13:10:00 UTC

I do not seem to be able to post to any of the mailing lists hosted at freebsd.org. I managed to subscribe allright but my messages do not get through. Yet, they are not outright rejected either. I think this is a configuration problem on the freebsd.org end.

The symptom is that the message is rejected with a transitional error of:

Helo command rejected; host not found and with an error code of 450 (I think)

After a lot of investigation I determined what is probably the problem:

My ISP's SMTP server, through which I relay, does not use its FQDN when issuing a HELO, rather it only uses its hostname. Eg it says 

HELO foo

instead of 

HELO foo.bar.com

The freebsd.org end (probably hub.freebsd.org) probably wants to reverse-resolve the name given in the HELO and fails since there is no host "foo" on the Internet. I would like to note that this is the first time that this configuration has caused any problems when sending mail to anywhere.

While it may be argued that this may be part of an anti-spam policy on the freebsd.org side, I think that overly restricting access to freebsd.org's resources is not a good way of encouraging contributions to FreeBSD.

Hence the filing under the advocacy category.

Fix: 

Relax the checks that are made before accepting a message for the mailing lists.

Also, leaving a message in limbo for several days is not exactly a great idea when you know that you won't accept it ever.
How-To-Repeat: Send mail to any mailing list hosted at freebsd.org from an SMTP server that does not put its FQDN in the HELO but only its hostname.

Watch the transitory error messages come back for a few a days until your SMTP server gives up and the message fails.

Comment 1 tedm 2001-10-10 13:45:55 UTC

>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
>[mailto:owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Szilveszter Adam
>Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 5:05 AM
>To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.ORG
>Subject: advocacy/31194: freebsd.org mailing lists - configuration
>problem?
>
>
>My ISP's SMTP server, through which I relay, does not use its FQDN
>when issuing a HELO, rather it only uses its hostname. Eg it says
>
>HELO foo
>
>instead of
>
>HELO foo.bar.com
>

First: close this PR.  This is not broken behavior.

Your ISP's mailserver is broken.  No properly configured mailserver on the
Internet issues an unqualified name with HELO.  Your ISP's mailserver
must be listed in the global DNS with a fully-qualified DNS name in order
for it to receive incoming mail (ie: foo.bar.com or whatever) in the first
place.  Thus, it's in effect parading around with a fully-qualified DNS
name from the rest of the world's perspective.  For it to not issue that
fully qualified DNS name in it's own HELO's is not only an error, it's
rude as well.

Please see the explanation atached to PR misc/26744 - this topic has been
beat to death and everyone is tired of it.  Nobody likes spammers and the
only way we know how to fight them is to ENFORCE absolutely proper SMTP
mail exchanges so the spammers may run but they can't hide.  Your choice
is to either beat your ISP over the head until they start doing it right,
or obtain a static IP number with a valid reverse address record on it from
them and set up your own mailserver and have at it.

All major ISP's such as AOL, Earthlink, MSN, etc. have no problem complying
with the Questions mailing list restrictions.  If an ISP with millions of
users processing thousands of pieces of mail an hour has no problem complying,
then your ISP can do it too.


Ted Mittelstaedt                                       tedm@toybox.placo.com
Author of:                           The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide
Book website:                          http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com

Comment 2 John Baldwin freebsd_committer

2001-10-10 18:15:55 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Close requested by Ted Mittelstaedt in his excellent followup message 
on the freebsd-advocacy list.  Please instruct your ISP to fix their 
mail server.